In 1993, the bank refused to grant them a business loan and they had no real estate to offer as collateral, just fresh ideas and the prototype of the first Ledlenser V8 flashlight. For the gentlemen at the bank, who told them that the V8 was unsellable, that wasn't enough. So In 1994, with 1,000 DM, a sketch book, toolbox and old Atari computer, twin brothers Rainer and Harald Opolka struck out on their own and founded Ledlenser in their garage in Germany.